The Price of True Love
by luvcsouat
Summary: CaptainSwan. AU. No curse. All magic comes with a price and true love is the most powerful magic of all. For most of her life Emma had been running, but now the one person she's been hiding from is exactly who she needs to talk to. Unfortunately that means she's going to need some help from a certain pirate.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hey, I really hope you guys enjoy this story. Please read the next few chapters before you decide if you like it or not because I promise it gets better. Also please review, I'd love to know what you have to say.**

**Disclaimer- I do not own any of the ouat characters.**

Chapter 1

They weren't far behind her, in fact she could feel his hand brush the back of her cloak. She tried her hardest to speed up, but she had been running for hours. They had to slow down eventually, the men weren't in that good of shape. She continued to pick up speed, willing her self to not pass out from exhaustion, she swerved through the trees and jumped over bushes. A loud thud came from behind her and just seconds later the sound of two men grunting.

"Two down...".She said quietly to herself. "One to go."

She kept on running, not slowing down her speed but she did slow down her brain. 'Okay stop' She thought, ' slow down, stop thinking. Listen.' She closed her eyes, somehow managing to not run into anything or fall over. 'Okay, he's pretty close. Wait... perfect!' She smiled, then opened her eyes before taking a sharp left. The man was still fast but she could tell by his breathing that he was getting tired. Then she saw it, so close.

"Why you little!" The man shouted from behind her, apparently seeing where she was headed and realizing what she was planning.

The woman didn't bother to slow down when she reached the crowd of towns people, just continued to run straight ahead. She could hear people shouting at her and each other, no one could tell who had pushed them over because she was running so fast. She stopped in the middle of the crowd, and noticed a seamstress who had her stand set up not to far away.

She pulled her hood over her head a little bit more and made sure all her hair was tucked away. She made her way over to the seamstress, and stopped right in front of the old woman.

"Do you have any cloaks?" She asked in a deep, man voice. Carefully tilting her head do that the old woman wouldn't see her face.

"Yes, plenty. Right over there, but none as nice as the one you're wearing." The seamstress said pointing to a rack.

She walked over and picked up the largest and most expensive looking cloak on the rack.

"How much for this?"

"Five gold, two silver." The old woman replied.

"I haven't got that much. I'm... traveling." She said, still in the deep voice. She wasn't lying, but completely."Would you give it to me for one gold, two slivers and the cloak I'm wearing right now?"

The old woman's eyes lit up to hear the end of the question, the cloak she was wearing was at least worth two times the one she was trying to buy. " I'll give it to you for the cloak, but I couldn't possibly take your money when you've given such a generous offer." The old woman told her, she was an honest and kind old lady.

"Thank you, is there a place where I could change?" She asked.

The old seamstress pointed to her left where there was a curtain set up. She walked over and went behind the curtain. She carefully took off the large grey velvet cloak she was wearing and replaced it with the ugly brown one. She buttoned it up completely, pulled her hair back into a pony tail, put the hood on and then walked out doing the grey cloak on the table in front of the seamstress.

A very large man came running to to the old woman. He wore a totally black outfit, complete with a black helmet. "

Excuse me miss! Have you seen a woman, blonde hair, green eyes, wearing a grey cloak?"He asked.

"Well, I did see someone wearing a grey cloak, came by just a minute ago and traded it for one of those brown ones. However the person sounded like a man and I didn't see their face it hair." The old woman replied honestly, but this time out of fear and not kindness.

"Show me the cloak!" He demanded, the woman lifted it up. "That's her, alright. Which way did she go?!"

"I..I didn't see I was to busy admiring the cloak." The woman answered, her voice shaking from fear.

The man turned around and stomped off, not even realizing the the young woman he was liking for was standing just a few feet away. She walked back over to the seamstress and took off the hood of the now green cloak. As soon as she left with the brown cloak she traded it for a green one.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Have you got any nice cloaks?" She asked the woman once again, only this time in her real voice.

"Yes I have those brown ones, there, and I just got in this grey cloak. But I'm not sure you could afford it." The woman replied looking the girl up and down.

"How much?" She asked, not offended at all by the somewhat rude comment."Six gold and four silver." The woman said after looking at the cloak and thinking about it.

"Here." She dropped seven gold on the seamstress' table. Took off her green cloak, and put on her grey one.

"You can keep the green cloak, and the extra money, you seem like a kind woman. Is there anywhere for me to stay the night? I'm just visiting the town."

"Thank you!" The old woman said, still in shock from the young ladies generosity. "Just down the road there's a little inn, I'm sure they'll have room for you."

"Thank you." And with the the young woman walked away, happy to be safe and back in her comfy velvet cloak.

...

She went into the room and locked the door and took off her cloak before sitting down on the bed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, one that has her picture on it, along with some writing: 'Emma, former princess. WANTED! If seen she is to be captured and returned to the dark palace, dead or alive.' She was surprised that she found this so far from the Dark Kingdom. But she was even more surprised that a black guard would follow her all the way out here, they were at least three kingdoms away from the dark palace. 'But I guess Reginas guys can go anywhere' She thought.

"Close call today Emma." She said to herself carefully folding the paper back up and stuffing it in her pocket. "I could use a drink. Maybe there's a pub near by."

She stood up and put her cloak back on them opened the door to leave. She noticed the swan on the key as she looked he door behind her. 'Swan... that could be a name.' She thought as she made her way down the stairs.

...

The pub was dark and cold and a little bit smelly, but Emma didn't mind, she had been in much worse places. She sat down in a booth toward the back of the pub, not making eye contact with anyone, or even taking her hood off. Pubs like this weren't always the safest places for women to be alone at night, not that Emma couldn't handle these guys, but she wasn't in the mood for a fight either. She just wanted to go in, get a drink, relax a little and then leave.

"What can I get you?" A task woman with black hair and red lips asked.

"You know, a cold glass of water sounds wonderful. But, do you have any food here, I'm starving." She said looking up at the girl, who was probably the same age as her.

The waitress sat down across from her. "Having a long day?"

"Ha, you have no idea." She said, with a smile.

"I know what you mean. This is not my week either. My name's Ruby, by the way."The girl put out her hand and Emma shook it.

"Swan." She replied.

"Swan? Is that your last name?" Ruby asked, Emma nodded. "Well do you have first name?"

"I do. But... I don't think it would be safe to say it."

"I see." Ruby said with an understanding smile, before standing up. "One water coming right up, and I'll cook you up some food too. Nice to meet you Swan."

"Thanks." Emma said. She cursed inwardly for not telling Ruby her name, but it wouldn't have been safe. Still, Ruby seemed nice, and it would be cool to a friend again, someone other than herself to talk to. 'Stop thinking like that Emma!' She silently yelled at her self, 'you know why you can't have friends, why you're alone.'

So when Ruby returned she didn't carry out a conversation, just thanked her and ate her dinner. Some men came in and say not to far from her, they were mostly quiet but Emma had trained herself to over hear conversations. They were talking about a rumor they had heard, that a king is looking to take over the Dark Kingdom, that he's hired someone to kidnap the evil queen..they weren't sure what king it was, but the said that whoever he was, he had hired Captain Hook to do the job.

"Excuse me, but what kingdom are we in right now?" Emma asked one of the men that was taking about the rumor.

"The silver Kingdom." He replied, then turned back to talk to his friends, apparently not wanting to talk with Emma.

'The silver kingdom! I ran farther than I thought.' Emma said quietly to herself. 'I wonder where they heard that rumor.'

"Excuse me, again. But where are you from?" Emma asked the man again.

"The silver kingdom, near the north border. Why?" He asked, clearly getting annoyed.

"Never mind." She smiled shyly then continued to eat. She didn't want to get him any more upset.

'The north border, that's near the white kingdom. Oh, gosh. Don't be stupid David.' She thought. 'If this plan fails Regina will find out who is behind it, and she won't hesitate to kill everyone in that kingdom. Oh please, don't make it David, please.'

"I hate to interrupt you again, but I couldn't help but over hear your conversation, where was it that you said the pirate ship was docked at." She asked the man, with an apologetic smile.

"The white kingdom! Now leave us alone!" He said. Emma could tell he was upset.

'No, no, no! David! You're so stupid, what are you thinking!' She thought, wishing he could hear her. 'I gotta get out of here, I have a ship to catch.' Emma stood up and put her hood on. She dropped some money on the table, much more than what the meal would cost, but Ruby deserved the tip. She ran down the street and back to the inn, she dropped the swan key and a few coins on the desk then headed for the road. 'Ugh, so much running in one day!' She thought, 'well at least you won't be late.'


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: here's the second chapter! I hope you all enjoy! Please write reviews, positive or negative, I don't care. Just wanna know what you think so far.**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of its characters.**

"Alright. Alright." He said with a laugh before become a little more serious. "Ha ha, okay. Alright, yeah, yeah, very funny. Alright. Hey! I said alright! That means shut up!" He yelled at the men, a little annoyed now because they wouldn't stop laughing and talking. "Thank you! Listen hear, tonight I want you all to go out and have some fun, eat, drink, dance, whatever suits your fancy. But remember tomorrow we work. That means the ship sets sail at exactly nine in the evening, but I want you back by noon. And don't forget, if you're late, we leave you behind...The Jolly Roger waits for only one man... me! Now go on! Get out of here, have some fun!"

The group of men laughed, and sang, happily running off to God knows where. But their captain and his two best men waited and watched them go out into the town. 'Idiots' he thought as he watched the men as they skipped and danced down the road, 'they're already acting drunk and haven't even had a sip to drink. They better be ready to set sail tomorrow.' His thoughts were cut off by the sound of an annoying voice.

"Wonderful speech Mr. cap'ain sir. Beautifully put sir." The short man on his right said as he clapped.

"Mr. Smee, did you know that every time the Jolly Roger is about to leave a port I give the exact same 'go out and have fun' speech the night before we leave? And did you know that ever time I give that speech you say the exact same thing that you just said a moment ago?" He glared at the small man.

"Sorry cap'ain, I...I don't mean to..." He stuttered.

"Ha! Don't be sorry, I don't mind a kiss up! So long as I'm the one you're kissing up to. Now come on mates, let's get drunk!" He said to his friends with a smile.

...

"The captain would kill you if he saw you doing that" a man shouted to his friends who appeared to be drunk and acting like someone.

"I am the captain you buffoon!" The man said in a bad fake accent, "now go get be some rum... And open it for me, I only have one hand!" The man laughed as he pulled his left sleeve down so that you couldn't see his hand. The group of men watching him laughed, one man even fell on the ground.

'They're definitely drunk.' Emma thought, the joke wasn't that funny.

"Excuse me, but, who might your captain be?" She asked, all of the men stopped laughing and turned to look at her.

"Captain Hook." The man who was messing around replied, lifting his sleeve covered hand and making his pointer finger look like a hook, "the most ruthless, mean and 'devilishly handsome' man around. A jerk that's what he is...a little" the man rambled on, saying rude things about his boss under his breath.

Emma nodded then began on her way, from the sound of it their captain seemed to be quiet fond of rum. She hoped she could find him at a near by bar or pub, probably somewhere dark and pirate friendly. She started to pass the group of men then felt a hand grab the back of her cloak. One of the men had stopped her, he was strong and pulled her back then spun her around and held her tight around the waist.

"And where do you think you're going?" He said looking down at Emma.

"Let go of me." She said, not wanting to get into another fight today. But she kept her voice strong in order to show that she wasn't afraid.

"Why don't you hang around for a bit?" The man suggested, some other guys started to circle around them.

"I said let go!" Emma yelled at him struggling to get free.

"Make me!" He hissed back, holding her tighter.

"Ow! Stop! Get away from me!"She punched the guy in the face causing him to let go of her but she just ran into two more men that grabbed hold of her.

She counted how many there were, about six. Two of which were too drunk to be a threat and one that seemed pretty weak, but that still left three strong pirates. If she wasn't so tired Emma wouldn't have the slightest problem with the idea of fighting three strong men. But she had run through three and a half kingdoms in one day, a journey that should take at least two days on foot, one and a half on horse back. So yeah, she was extremely tired, which meant she wasn't exactly on the top of her game, so there might be a problem with trying to take on three guys at once.

"Listen guys! I don't want any trouble!" She said, hoping they would listen to some reasoning.

"Neither do we." One of the men said with a devious smile.

"Wonderful! Then why don't you just let me go and we'll all be happy!" She said.

"Ha. I'll let you go... if you give me a kiss." One of the men said with a smile.

'Gosh, is this guy serious?' She wondered, 'well, do I have much of a choice? No! A "kiss" to him probably means something much, much worse.' She glared at him, wishing she could grab the dagger that was underneath her cloak, but the other two men were holding her arms back. The man leaned in to kiss her and she stomped on his toes.

"Ow!" He yelled. He grabbed her and threw her onto the ground. "How dare you!"

"Look I don't want to fight, please just leave me alone!"She pleaded, not wanting to upset him any more.

"Hey, what's going on, Richard?" A voice asked from behind the man. Richard turned around, letting Emma see the tall man standing behind him.

"Why don't stay out of this Graham!" Richard yelled.

"You want me to go back to the captain, tell him about all the laughs you guys were having at his expense." After Graham said that all the men ran off except for Richard who bumped into Graham before walking off. Graham glared at him then went over to Emma, he stuck out his hand to help her but she didn't take it.

"Thanks, but I could have handled it myself." She said, brushing the dirt off her clothes.

"That's not what it looked like."

"I've gotten into fights much worse than that. I only acted weak so that he wouldn't see it coming when I pulled out a sword or dagger or something."

"And do you have a sword or dagger or...something?" He asked playfully.

'Is he making fun of me?' She asked herself. "Wait... how long were you just standing over there watching."

"Since you asked about the captain."

"And you were just going to stand there and watch while they attacked me?" Her eyes burned with fury. How could anyone just stand by and let something like that happen.

Graham chuckled, "but I thought you said you could handle it yourself?"

"I could have!" She said defensively, "look I gotta go, nice meeting you Graham."

"He's at the third bar on your right, the table in the back, you can't miss him." He called out as end started to walk away. She stopped and turned around.

"What?"

"Well you asked about Hook then you started to head toward the darker part of town, I figured you were going to see him."

"Well you figured wrong, I'm going to find an inn to spend the night at."

"Oh, then just one building from where I said the captain was." He said with a smile.

"Thanks."

...

Most of the past three hours was a blur, all Hook knew was that there was a lot of laughter, some games, drinking, singing, and some more drinking. It was good, but now be had to head back to the ship. Hook liked to get back there early, spend the morning sleeping then get ready to go in the afternoon and leave at night. They had to leave port before that time the next day if they were going to get back here with that special "package" on time.

Most men found it odd how he could drink so much, get completely drunk and then in a matter of one hour be completely sober again. It's because, truth be told, Hook never actually got drunk, sure he drank alcohol but never enough to mess with his brain. He simply acted drunk when he was around his drunk friends. So yes only one hour after his last bottle of rum Hook was completely alert and aware of everything. Especially the hooded figure that seemed to have been following them ever since they left the pub.

He had only caught glimpses of the person from out of the corner of his eye, for all he knew he was just imagining things. But it was almost as if he could feel their eyes watching him, only him. If there was indeed someone behind him then that person was a very good spy, not good enough to fool Captain Hook, but still good enough that he never heard them coming.

"Graham, come here." He said to the man walking just a couple feet behind him. Graham sped up so that he was walking along side the captain.

"Yes, captain?"

Hook leaned in and whispered into Graham ear. "I'm having the increasing feeling that we are being followed. I want you and Smee to go ahead back to the boat so I can deal with this. If you understand then I want you to laugh as if I just made a joke about Smee."

Graham started to laugh, "oh, your right captain. That is funny !"

"What?" Smee asked, eager to know what was so funny.

"Let's go back to the boat and I'll tell you." Graham said.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N- here's the third chapter, hope you like it. Please review. Also sorry for not posting this yesterday. **

**Disclaimer- I do not own ouat or any of its characters.**

Chapter 3

...

"Come on out." He said as soon as the two men left. "Oh, come on. Don't be a coward."

'Shit!' She yelled inwardly, 'how did he know?' She heard the sound of a sword being removed from its sheath. He pointed it at the tree she was hiding behind. Emma wasn't really in the mood for a fight, not after last night, but she was ready for one if need be.

"I said come out!" He demanded. She pulled her hood up then carefully stepped out into the clearing, but remained in the shadows. "Who are you? Show yourself."

She didn't respond, just continued to look down. 'I need a cover, quick think!' He stepped closer, still holding the sword out. He got close enough that he could stab her with the sword, and was actually getting ready to do so.

"Stop! Please don't hurt me." She said in a scared voice, "I was just picking apples, see." She held out a couple of apples that she had in her pocket. He put his sword back in the sheath then snatched it out of her hand, holding it up to examine it.

"There aren't any apple trees around here... And these are far from ripe." He threw the apple onto the ground, pulling the sword back out and pointing out at her once again. He put the tip of it just underneath the hem of her hood, lifting it up to reveal her face. She looked familiar, like he had seen her before. Especially her eyes, and that long blonde hair, it all reminded him of something, but what exactly, he didn't know. "Who are you and why are you lying to me?"

"I... I was just... uh..."She honestly didn't know what to say, tricks like that usually worked. Maybe he would just let her go if she asked nicely. "look I'm sorry, I shouldn't have followed you. I'll just be going." She turned to leave but he stopped her by sticking the sword out in front of her.

"I asked a question, lass, and I want an answer. Don't make me ask again." He hissed.

"Swan." She said quickly.

"Beg your pardon?"

"My name is swan" She clarified, hoping he would be satisfied with just a name.

"Peculiar name. But that's only part of an answer... Why were you following me, miss Swan?"

"I needed to go to the docks, and I over heard you talking about your ship. So I assumed you'd be heading there too."

"You're a terrible liar miss Swan, but I'm going to let you go any how. I haven't the time nor the patience to be bothered by you." He said, putting the sword back and walking away.

Emma let out a brief sigh as soon as she knew he was gone. 'That was close, too close.' She told herself, 'but at least I know where to go now.' She planned to wait a few hours, maybe take a quick nap before she started on her way. As soon as it started getting dark she would head toward the docks, she could then sneak on to the ship in the middle of the night. Hide out for a while, of course they'd find her fairly easily, but by then it be to late to turn around.

Emma picked up one of the apples and took a bite, it was more sour than sweet, but she didn't mind. In fact she was quite fond of the flavor, green apples have always been her favorite. Probably because she's never had a red one, she never had them as a child, mostly because the story caused her to have an unhealthy fear of them. But even after she grew out of that, she just never really wanted to try one, she heard they were extremely sweet.

After she finished the fruit she sat down, leaning her back against the tree. It was hard to fall asleep with the sun still out but Emma was going to need the rest, after all the running and fighting and walking she's done on the past few days. Some how she would manage to get a little rest, but she didn't plan on going completely asleep, she still needed to wake up in time to sneak aboard that ship. Which she didn't even know the name of, hopefully there weren't that many ships at the dock, otherwise it might take a while to find it. 'Come on Emma, you need to stop thinking and go to sleep.' She told her self. After a few minutes of trying she was finally able to fall partially asleep.

...

Emma woke herself up only two hours after she had nodded off, but judging by the sky it was late enough to start heading for the docks. She got up and started in the direction she saw the captain and his men going earlier, hopefully it would be straight forward from here. She didn't want to worry about getting lost or ending up miles away from where she was supposed to be. But they seemed to be going in a straight line, so that's what Emma would do.

The sky grew increasingly darker with each minute, which Emma wasn't too happy about, walking through the forest at night was not her favorite thing in the world. Not because she was scared or worried of what might be out there. No she was definitely not afraid of the dark, and she was well armed in case she got attacked, but she didn't like not being able to see what was going on around her. And she really didn't like how every little sound seemed to be so much louder when it was dark.

She tried not to pay attention to the little noises she heard and just keep her focus on where she was going, but it was hard. Even when she stepped on a twig it freaked her out.

"Stop it Emma!" She said after jumping at the sound of an owl, "you're acting like a child, afraid of your own shadow." Okay, maybe she was a little afraid of the dark, well at least the dark woods.

It didn't take her to long to get close enough to smell the salty ocean, at least she knew she was going in the right direction. The forest began to fade a little and soon there weren't any trees around her. Off in the distance there were some lights, Emma guessed that that's where the docks were. And she guessed correctly.

Once she was there it didn't take as long as she thought to find the ship, of course there were some other boats there, but none like the one she would be getting on. The Jolly Roger... the boat seemed to match its captain well, it was painted completely black, just like his leather outfit. It was fairly easy to tell that this was a pirate ship, the only thing it was missing was a skull and cross bones flag, but instead it had the flag of the White Kingdom.

She hid, with her back pressed against another ship, there were two men talking right next to the Jolly Roger. She looked back at them, she had seen them earlier, they were with the group of jerks that attacked her. Hopefully they wouldn't be the ones to find her once the ship set sail. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying but she did hear the words "captain" and "Graham" come up in the conversation, confirming that she had the right ship. She waited for the men to board the ship before coming out of her hiding space.

Emma stood for a while, just staring at the Jolly. 'How am I going to sneak on?' She wondered. She was expecting there to be some things that needed loading, like big boxes of food or barrels of water, something she could hop inside of. But apparently they had already done that. And it wasn't like she could just walk on like they had, and the side of the boat was too slippery to climb. Emma was beginning to think it was hopeless until she saw it, a little boat sitting in the water, it had strings attached to it that kept it connected to the ship. They must not have pulled it up yet, which made it the perfect place for her to hide. She could get inside of it and hide there for awhile, before they set sail they'll pull it out of the water and onto the deck. Then she could get out and hide somewhere better until they had gone far enough to where they wouldn't turn around.

She heard the sound of men's voices getting closer. 'Shit!' She thought, the boat was at least five feet out there and she couldn't let them see her. She hated to do it but this would be the only chance she had. Emma sat down and quickly removed her shoes, tossing them onto the boat, then she closed her eyes and held her breath. In one quick movement she dropped herself into the water keeping one hand on the side of the dock. She held on for dear life, 'just hold on, it'll be okay' she tried to reassure herself. Her heart was racing, and she had a hard time fighting back the urge to frantically kick her legs, she reached up and held on with both hands.

Through the wood, Emma could feel the vibration of the men walking on the dock. After about two minutes they stepped on the boat, but Emma waited a little longer to make sure they were gone. She lifted her head up and took a large gasp, she pulled herself up and just lied there on the dock for a while. Then she sat up and looked over at the little boat, how was she going to pull it closer? Maybe she could jump, no, she wouldn't make it, plus it would make too much noise. But swimming was definitely out of the question. However she might be able to push off of the dock hard enough that she could grab hold of the side of the boat.

"Might as well try" Emma said before grudgingly slipping back into the freezing water. She held on with one hand then put her feet on the side of the dock. 'One. Two... Three.' On three she pushed her herself and reached the other arm out, grabbing hold of the little boat. " Oh, thank God. "

She got inside the boat and placed herself carefully underneath the wooden seats, not a perfect place to hide but it would work. Even though it wasn't at all comfortable she almost instantly fell asleep.

...

"Where do you want theses barrels cap'ain?"

"Just over there." Hook said pointing to his right.

He loved this, all the hustle and bustle there was just prior to the ship setting sail. He liked it mostly because he didn't have to do much, just stand at the helm of the ship and watch. Of course he had to direct the men on where to go and where to put things but it wasn't any real work. No, his real work began once they were out on the ocean, that's when things got hard. But right now he could sit back and watch as his men got ready to leave.

"Cap'ain, the dingy is still out in the water." One man called out.

"What are you telling me for? Just pull it up." He shouted back, sometimes his men seemed completely helpless. Like they'd be utterly lost without him, it seemed as though they asked him questions about the stupidest things.

After a few more hours of this they were finally ready to leave. They raised the anchor and were off, heading south. Hook steered the ship for a while, until they got far enough that he couldn't see the docks. He looked up at the mast and shook his head.

"Somebody, take that bloody flag down." He ordered looking up at the white and red flag. They did so and replaced it with their usual tattered old black flag.

"Smee, I'm going to my cabin to look at some maps, see to it that everything gets taken care of. And if you need anything, just ask Graham."

"Aye, cap'ain, I'll take care of things." Smee said, doing a terrible job at hiding his excitement. Hook rolled his eyes then went off to the lower deck.

He opened the door of his cabin and went straight to the desk. His room was unlike any of the others, it had a nice bed, a desk for all of his things, a window and not to mention his own restroom. But like the other rooms it was fairly plain, no paint on the walls, no fancy blankets on the bed, but still it was nice.

He sat down at his desk, in the chair that was permanently attached to the floor. His brother had it made this way, along with everything else in the room, after one terrible storm, it caused everything to move about the cabin. The place was a total mess after the storm finished and it took quite a while to clean up, Liam never wanted that to happen again. At it seemed to work pretty well, the only thing Hook didn't like is that the chair didn't move in.

He pulled out some maps along with the globe of the enchanted forest. He was right in the middle of figuring out what direction to go in when there was a rapid pounding at the door.

"Cap'ain, cap'ain!"

"Not now Smee!" Hook yelled in annoyance.

"But cap'ain!"

"What ever it is I'm sure you can handle it! Now go away! I am a very busy man!"

"I know sir, but cap'ain!"

Hook stood up and stomped over to the door, flinging it open to look at Smee, "bloody hell! I said go away!"

"Captain! They found a stow away." Graham interrupted.

...

"Where is he!" Hook shouted as soon as he stepped onto the deck.

He stood at the helm of the ship and waited as two men pulled forward a person. The person had a black bag pulled over their head and their arms were tied in front of them. The men pushed the person down so that they were kneeling in front of Hook. They lifted the bag off the persons head before Hook had to tell them.

"You!" He yelled when he saw the blonde girl.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: How you like this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it. Please review!**

**Disclaimer- I do not own ouat or its characters.**

Chapter 4

...

Emma didn't get scared easily, she got worried easily, she got upset easily. But she definitely did not get scared easily. Which is why it was so odd for her to feel utterly fearful at that moment. Maybe it was the tone of his voice, maybe it was the anger in his eyes, the way he picked her up by the elbow and dragged her across the deck. Or maybe it was a combination of all three. But whatever it was, it caused Emma to be completely terrified.

She was not expecting this, and maybe she should have been. For some reason she had the idea that when they found her they would be a little upset and then get over it and let her come with them on the journey. In hindsight it was a silly, stupid thought. There was a reason why people didn't sneak onto ships everyday, especially not pirate ships and Emma knew that. But for some reason she had convinced herself that nothing bad would happen.

Clearly she was wrong, this guy was definitely angry. What was he going to do? Would he kill her? 'Oh, gosh! Don't think about that Emma!' She told herself as he pulled her across the deck. He roughly pinned her against the mast and lifted his hook. She thought he was going to stab her or gouge her eye out as he lifted it to her face. But to her surprise he used it to cut the gag they had tied around her mouth. She took a large gasp of air, relieved that the cloth was out of her mouth, but before she could get too relieved he placed the hook under her chin and lifted her head.

"Hello Swan." He hissed through clenched teeth.

"Captain." She replied. It was a risky move, the tone of her voice was not at all respectful and he could have very well killed her right there.

"What's your name? Your real name?" He asked. Emma was surprised, she wasn't expecting that to be his first question. She was thinking something more along the lines of, why are you here? Or what are you doing on my ship?

"Answer me!" He yelled, but Emma refused.

She did this mostly to stall, she was hoping they could go a little farther out in the ocean before he finished questioning her. That way it'd be too late to turn around. So instead of answering she decided to spit at him, which may not have been the best idea. Apparently everyone takes it offensively when you spit at the captain because all of the men pulled out their swords. But lucky for her Hook let go of her arm to hold up his hand, a sign to put the swords away.

"Answer the question... or you'll be walking that plank with an anchor tied to your back." He whispered in her ear pointing at the plank behind him.

"Emma." She said in a harsh whisper.

Almost immediately after he heard this he pulled the hook away from her throat. But she didn't dare move, he could still hurt her and there was an army of pirates behind him. A few of which probably recognized her from their little encounter earlier. But Emma didn't want to worry about them or how mad they were at her, so she kept her focus on the man in front of her.

He looked her dead in the eyes, his expression was one of someone in deep thought. He started into her hazel-green eyes like that for what seemed like forever, then his expression changed. His eyes had that little flicker in them, the one you get when two things connect in your brain and you have a little epiphany. And then he smiled, he was actually grinning at her.

"Emma" he repeated in a sinister voice, "as in _princess_ Emma... of the White Kingdom."

"I.. don't know what you're talking about." She said, but it was no use he had seen the look on her eyes when he said princess. There was no denying that he had guessed correctly.

"Come on now, we both know you're a terrible liar. So why try?"

She thought about it for some time, he was right, they both knew the truth. How to make that truth work out for her best interest, that would be hard. Emma was so used to lying about who she was, she didn't have much practice with making the truth work for her.

She swallowed hard, hoping what she was about to say would work. "You're right... I am a princess... And therefore you have no right to be questioning or threatening me... So let go." She tried her hardest to put on a regal front and act all prestigious, but it wasn't very convincing.

And apparently it was a little upsetting for the captain, because this time he wasn't so careful when he pinned her to the mast. Not that he had been careful the first time, but now it was worse. He held her right arm in place by holding it in between the mast and his hook then held his sword to her neck. She struggled to breathe, taking short quick gasps of air, as the situation was not all that comfortable. In fact it was rather painful, and even though she tried to hold it back a small tear ran down her cheek.

"Let me explain something to you, Emma. You see, this is the way things work at sea, and I'm not just talking about my ship, I'm talking about any ship that doesn't work for royalty. Ships like this one, are like their own little kingdom, sure we abide by the rules of whatever land we set port at. But as soon as we set sail, we enter another kingdom, with different rules and different rulers. So you may be a princess back in your kingdom, but here, on the Jolly Roger, I'm the only royalty there is, and you are no better than a lowly peasant. Actually you're worse, because you entered my kingdom illegally, which, by the way is grounds for execution. But lucky for you I'm working for daddy, and that is the only thing keeping you from walking the plank." He nodded his head at the other side of the deck were the plank was. Emma gulped, she had tried so hard not to show her fear but the mention of the plank truly did scare her, mostly because she couldn't swim. Hook grinned at her reaction, her fear seemed to satisfy him, "I see you get my point," he added before letting go of her. She fell to the ground, just barely able to catch herself due to her wrists being bound together. She took very large gasps of air as she tried to stay herself, he began walking away. "Tie her up." He said to one of the men as he passed, two of them rushed over to hold her to the mast while another tightly wrapped the rope around her.

"I thought ships like yours don't work for royalty." Emma shouted after him as soon as she got her breath back, refusing to let him have the last word. He stopped walking, Emma thought he was going to turn around but he didn't, he simply took a deep breath and then continued on his way. Emma smiled to herself for winning, then remembered that she was still tied to the mast and it was a very cold night.

...

"Is there anything I can do captain?" Graham asked as he stood in the doorway of Hooks cabin.

"Bring her here." Hook said after a minute of contemplating the question.

Graham walked out of the room and went down the hall. As he went up the stairs the sound of men's laughter grew louder and louder. When he got onto the deck he saw a group of men circled around the mast.

"Remember me sweetheart?" One of them asked.

"Leave her alone Richard." Graham said pushing through the crowd. "Get back to work. All of you."

Richard walked off along with all the other men, sending a glare at Graham as he walked away. Graham didn't seem to care though, his focus remained on the blonde tethered to the mast. Emma looked away when she saw who it was, 'why is he always the one to save me?' She wondered. He walked over to her but stopped before he got to close.

"Hello again." He said with a smirk.

"What do you want Graham?" She asked in annoyance.

"The captain wishes to see you" he stated before adding, "and it looked like you couldn't handle them on your own."

"Maybe if I wasn't tied up I could." She shot back. He stepped closer and pulled out his sword, in one swift move he cut the ropes. Then he grabbed her arm and started leading her back the way he came.

"You know... you're not exactly what I expected the princess of the White Kingdom to be like."

"That's probably because I haven't been a princess in years."

"Oh? And why's that?"

"That's none of your business. What does the captain want from me?" She asked, desperate to change the subject.

"I don't know. That's none of my business." He echoed before opening the door to the captain's cabin. "Here you are." He said pushing Emma into the room before walking away and closing the door behind him.

... "Hello princess, please, take a seat." Hook said in an almost cheery voice, with a little bit of a menacing undertone. It's as if he was trying to trick her into thinking he was being kind, that any previous emotions of anger had completely disappeared. But Emma knew better than to fall for this trick.

"No thanks, I'd rather stand." She said, then noticing he was on the other side of the room decided to add, "right here, if you don't mind."

"Of course, wherever the princess feels comfortable." He said continuing with the kind act.

Emma winced at the word princess, she didn't like the way it sounded. It sounded like a lie, not that she hadn't lied many times in the past but never to that extent. Never impersonating someone of such power, such class, such... importance. Sure Emma was technically a princess, but she hasn't been one since she was a child, and she hasn't acted like one back then. The sound of His voice brought her back to reality.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" She asked, realizing he was waiting for her to answer a question she didn't here.

"Why are you here, Swan?" He repeated.

"Ha, I was wondering the same thing." Emma said, looking around the room. "And to think, here I was hoping you would answer that question for me."

"That's not what I meant Swan, and you know it." He said, his fake nice voice slowly fading.

"Well, what did you mean Hook?"

"I meant, why are you on my ship? Why would the princess of the Enchanted Forests favorite kingdom, want to run away and sneak onto a pirate ship?" Once again she winced at the word.

"Stop calling me princess." She said calmly, she had to say it, she couldn't stand to here that word one more time. "And I didn't run away to sneak onto your ship, I ran away for a very different reason, and I don't want to talk about it. But I will tell you why I'm on your ship... there's someone I need to talk to, someone that your ship can take me to."

"What? You couldn't just write them a letter? Or have daddy summon them?" He taunted. But Emma ignored the joke.

"No, I need to talk to them in person, and the king wouldn't want me to talk to them."

"You call your father 'the king'?"

"Sometimes I call him David, but only when I think out loud or talk to myself." Why did she say that? Emma scolded herself for saying too much.

"I see... Well, I'm willing to let you stay on my ship and, if it's safe, talk to this mysterious someone. But you must agree to one thing." He paused for her to say something but Emma didn't speak. "You must promise to let me return you to your family as soon as the voyage is over."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"The trip will last a long time, I imagine they'll miss you a great deal by the end of it. And I can only imagine how much they'd be willing to give me for your safe return."

"What if I don't want to be returned?"

"Oh, my dear, I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey everyone. I'm posting this today because I'm gonna be really busy tomorrow, hope that's alright :) A bid thanks to those of you who have favorited, followed and/or reviewed. Please review! Oh I just wanted to remind everyone that this is a _captain swan_ fanfic. But that doesn't mean Emma won't have moments with other people.**

**Disclaimer- I do not own any ouat characters.**

Chapter 5.

Emma wasn't worried, many people had tried to return her to get parents and all had failed. So somehow she would get out of it, but this time she'd let the captain believe that she was going along with his plan. As soon as he finish talking to her he had Graham come back and tie her to the mast again, apparently he still didn't trust her. Graham said he would try to convince Hook to give her a cabin. Why was this guy so nice to her?

"Ow!" She said when he pulled the rope tighter. "Could you make it a little more loose?"

"Sorry, but I have to tie it tight. Captain orders." Graham said, pulling the rope one last time, "there, all done. Well, See you in the morning, sleep tight."

"Like I have a choice." She mumbled under her breath.

It took a while for Emma to fall asleep, part of that was due to the fact that she was tied to the mast. Sleeping while standing up was something Emma had never done before, but after a while she got used to the odd feeling. The real reason for her hard time going to bed was that she couldn't stop thinking about her parents. She hadn't seen them in so long, she really wanted to ask Hook about them, but how could she do that without giving him to much information? If she asked him what they were like he would know something was wrong, and he almost caught her earlier when she called her dad the king. 'What were you thinking Emma?' She asked herself, 'normal people don't call their parents by their titles, they call them mom or dad.'

...

"Morning princess." Graham greeted as he cut her free, "I'm surprised you actually fell asleep like that, seems awfully uncomfortable."

"It was." She said before he held a mop out for her, "what's this?"

"Oh, right. Being a princess and all, you've probably never seen one of these before." He teased, then continued talking to her as if she was a baby "well, it's called a mop. You put it in the bucket, then you take it out and move it around the floor. It makes the deck clean."

"I know what a mop is you idiot. I was just wondering why you're giving it to me." She said, still not taking the mop from his hand.

"If you're going to stay on my ship, then you're going to work like everyone else." Hook said before Graham could answer. 'Where did he come from' Emma wondered, she hadn't seen him at all just a few seconds ago.

"Fine." She grudgingly took the mop and bucket from Graham. Then glared at the captain. "So where should I start Hook?"

"Over there," he said pointing behind him and to his right. Emma started walking in that direction but he stopped her and whispered in her ear, "I want you to call me captain when we're in front of my crew, understand?" He said this in almost an upset tone as if she had purposely said it to disrespect him in front of everyone.

"Right, sorry."

...

Emma had done house work before, but never this much. It took her nearly two hours to finish mopping the entire deck, and it didn't help that a few jerks decided to purposely make it dirtier. And as soon as she finished Hook had another job for her, she had to sand down the new wood in one area of the deck. It may sound easy but it wasn't, especially when it was so hot, by the end of it she was dripping with sweat.

"There I'm done." She said as she finished sanding the last plank. Hook walked over and stared at it for a while, then bent down and inspected it carefully. Emma rolled her eyes as he put on the show of "carefully inspecting" the work she had done.

"Well, it could be better, there's a few spots you missed. But I guess it's pretty good for your first time." He said before offering his hand to help her up, she didn't take it. "Go on and see if there's anything left to eat."

It was already an hour past lunch time, but Emma had decided to work through it. Wrong decision, as it seemed the men on the ship didn't leave much for her. Actually they didn't leave anything for her, 'guess I'll just have to wait until dinner'. Emma stood for a while considering what she should/could do next. 'Well, I probably should go back up and see if there's anything else to do, but I could go exploring a bit.' She chose the second one, it seemed better than working on that hot deck some more. Plus she wasn't really liking the whole Hook being her "captain" thing, and she was willing to do anything to show him that he wasn't in charge of her. Sure he might be a little upset, okay more than a little, but Emma didn't care, she wouldn't let that jerk boss her around.

She didn't really know where to start on this little exploration, or what exactly she was hoping to find, but she did know one thing. She could not be seen. By anyone. If anyone saw her they would bring her straight to Hook, unless of course it was one of those guys she had that fight with. If she ran into one of them, there's no telling what they might do. Because both of those situations did not sound very appealing, Emma made sure she was very careful and very quiet as she snuck down the hallway. Most of the doors in the first hallway were cracked slightly open, but none of them had anything interesting on the other side, mostly just cabins. And each cabin she went into was more or less, exactly like the last, each with two beds, two trunks for clothing and one table.

"You'd think a pirate ship would have some more exciting things on it." Emma said to herself as she closed the door of yet another cabin.

"What exactly were you looking for?" Emma jumped at the sound of a voice behind her. She turned around to see Graham standing with his arms folded, as if he had been watching her in amusement for some time.

"Jeez! You came out of no where!" She said, still a little startled by his sudden appearance, "so, what do you just creepily stock around the hallways all the time?" The two began walking down the hallway, silently agreeing to continue the conversation elsewhere.

"First off, when you're on a ship you call them passageways. And no, I only creepily stock the passageways when you're around."

"Are you trying to flirt with me, or are you just overly friendly?" She asked, turning to look at him as he answered. She wanted to know the truth, and to do that she needed to see his face.

"I would never flirt with Snow White's daughter." He said, not at all taken back by the question. 'Truth' Emma decided

"How'd you know my mom's name?"

"Doesn't everyone?" She considered this, 'he does have a good point.' It was true, her mother's story, or rumors of her mother's story were told everywhere, even in other world's. But something about the way he said "Snow White's daughter" as opposed to 'the princess' or the 'the queens daughter'. It just seemed a bit odd, but Emma didn't want to talk about her mom.

"So, what? You're just overly nice to me for no reason?" She asked sarcastically.

"No, you remind me of someone I used to know. You even look a little bit like her."

"And... Who was she... to you."

"What was are relationship?" He clarified, Emma nodded. "Well I'm not sure we could really be called friends. I only talked to her once, but that was all I needed to know she was an amazing person. Truly good. I don't think there was an ounce of evil in that woman's body, so I risked my life to save hers. I never saw her again, but it was worth it."

Emma didn't know what to say. There were plenty of questions that she could ask him. Who was the woman? Why would Emma remind him of a person like that? Why would he do something so dangerous for a person he barely knew? But Emma didn't ask any of these, if he wanted to share he would, and if not, oh well... that was fine too.

"I'm not actually a pirate." Graham said, breaking the silence between them.

"That explains a lot." She joked.

"I'm actually a huntsman."

As soon as he said this the entire story he just told made sense. He had been comparing her to her mother. He was the huntsman who saved her mom's life. Emma had never met anyone from her mother's stories before, in fact she thought they were all dead. Out of excitement, Emma actually forgot for a second that Graham did not know her story and almost asked him something that would have completely given her up. She opened her mouth to ask him more about her mom but stopped herself in time to change the question.

"How are you so young?" She asked, maybe it wasn't the best question, but she had already started talking and she needed to change her question. Emma hoped it didn't sound too rood, "I just mean, it happened before I was even born, and you were older than her right? So you should be like... three times my age."

"Regina was very angry after I failed to kill your mother, so she took my heart and cursed me to never age. She said she needed me to stay young and strong in case she ever needed me to... get rid of anyone for her."

Emma stopped walking and looked at him then at his chest then back at him before taking a step back. She didn't really do this consciously either, it was just sort of instinct. Hopefully this didn't offend him, it was just... if there was any chance that Regina was controlling him and was about to have him kill her, Emma wanted to be ready to run away.

"It's alright Emma... She let me go a few years ago, broke the curse and gave me my heart back." Emma continued to stare at him, it seemed like he was truthful but maybe her super power just didn't work on heartless people.

"Emma, I assure you, my heart is safely in my chest. Right where it should be, you can feel it."

Emma was still unsure. She knew that you couldn't feel a person's heart beat if their heart had been taken, but still the possibility that he was lying was enough to scare her. Despite all of this, Emma bravely reached her hand out and placed it above where his heart should be. He raised his eyebrows, silently asking if she could feel it, instantly she felt it beating, 'he isn't lying' she told herself with a smile. She opened her mouth to tell him she was done freaking out, but was cut off.

"What in the bloody hell is going on!"


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N- A special thanks to all of you who have favorited/followed my story. I really hope you enjoy this chapter. Review, favorite, follow.**

**Disclaimer- I think by now we ask know that I don't own Ouat. :( **

Two hours after Emma left to go get lunch Hook began to wonder where she was. It shouldn't take her that long to eat, so why wasn't she back yet? In hindsight he probably should have told her to come back after she finished her meal, but he figured that would be implied. He went around the deck asking each man if they had seen the princess lately.

"Maybe she threw herself over the side of the ship." Someone behind him joked to someone else.

Hook turned around and glared at them. Not that he cared either way, if the princess decided to drown herself then he would simply deny that she was ever on his ship in the first place. However he secretly hoped that wasn't the case, he would most likely get a lot of money from the king for safely returning the run away princess.

"Smee, have you seen the princess?"

"Aye cap'ain, saw her just half an hour ago. She was walkin' 'round bellow deck." Smee said.

"Why the bloody hell didn't you bring her to me then?" Hook asked, sometimes Smee was a real idiot.

"Thought you knew where she was." Smee replied innocently.

"Idiot." Hook said before walking to the staircase.

...

Hook walked down the passage ways for almost an hour. Where was this girl? It wasn't like she could go that far, it was a ship in the middle of the ocean after all. Finally after a few more minutes of searching he could hear her voice. 'Is she talking to herself?' Hook wondered before hearing another voice. Hook wasn't necessarily angry but he was a little upset and annoyed. It seemed like common sense that if the princess was wondering about by herself then they should bring her to him. But apparently his men didn't understand the simplest things.

He turned the corner just in time to see... No _catch_ Emma and Graham in the middle of what seemed to be a very deep conversation. He saw as Emma looked deeply into Graham eyes before placing her hand over his heart and smiling. Hook didn't know what over came him, but something about what he had just witnessed made him mad, angry, furious. He clenched his teeth and his fists, glaring intensely at Graham, who was oblivious to his presence.

"What the bloody hell is going on!" He screamed as he stomped over to them. He grabbed Emma by the arm, pulling her away from Graham.

"I've been looking for you every where. And you, why didn't you bring her to me?"

"Forgive me captain, I didn't know you were looking for her." Graham said coolly.

"Let go of me!" Emma said, desperately trying to pull her arm away, but his grip was to strong.

"Graham, go to the top deck and steer west would you? I need to talk to our princess." Hook said in an only slightly calmer tone.

"Aye captain." As he walked by he leaned in and whispered to Emma, "don't worry."

Hook pulled her closer to him continuing to glare at Graham. Then he thought to himself, 'why am I so upset about this?'

...

Hook opened the door to his quarters and pushed Emma in.

"Gee thanks." She said sarcastically as she rubbed her left arm, he had decided to keep his tight hold on her arm the entire walk over to his cabin.

Hook didn't respond, he just walked over and sat down at his desk, facing away from her. He didn't say anything or even look at her. Instead he shuffled through some maps and papers as if he was just working, then after a minute or two he pulled out a bottle of rum. He took a large drink of it then continued on doing what he was doing before. Emma awkwardly stood in the corner of the room, unsure what she was supposed to do.

"You know... I really don't see why you're so upset, it's not like I could have gone that far. It's a ship." Still Hook kept silent. Emma waited for him to say something, but he never did.

"So, is there something you wanted to talk to me about. Cause if not I'll just be going." She said, warily making her way to the door.

"You're not going anywhere Swan." Hook said bluntly, his eyes remaining on the map in front of him.

"And why not... _Hook_?" She emphasized 'Hook' hoping the use of his name would upset him.

"Because _princess_," he said, doing the same thing to the word 'princess'. "I said so."

"You're not in charge of me Hook, you can't tell me what to do."

"Then you can get off my ship." He finally turned to look her dead in the eye as he said this. His face was completely blank, as was his voice.

He didn't show any sign of anger or annoyance, just a blank face and an expressionless voice. Emma searched his face, why couldn't she read him, she couldn't tell whether he was serious or not. She searched his face some more, he was mad at her, she could see it in his eyes.

"What's your problem? All I did was take a few extra hours to myself." Emma said, getting annoyed by his odd behavior, although maybe it wasn't odd for he was just naturally an over controlling jerk.

He stared at her, then his expression changed, it was softer. He sighed and then stood up and walked over to her. "Sit down and wait here." She did as he instructed, and watched him walk towards the door. He stepped out into the hallway and then closed the door behind him, then she heard the jingle of keys and she saw the door knob eyes grew as she took in what just happened. 'No, no, he did not just do that! I did not just fall for that!' She thought as she stood up and ran to the door. She tried to turn the knob in each direction, then she tried pushing it and pulling it, but the door wouldn't budge. He had locked her in. And even worse she had fallen for it.

"Hook! Let me out of here!"

...

Hook sauntered onto the deck in his usual manner, confident and maybe a little bit cocky. He wore a sly little smirk on his face as he made his way to the helm. He stood opposite of Graham who was currently too occupied steering the ship to notice his presence. Hook put his good hand over his eyebrows and squinted, so to shield his eyes from the sun. It was getting a little late but the sky was clear and the sun reflected quite a lot on the water.

"Graham, I'd like to speak with you." Hook said with a weak smile, Graham quickly turned his head to look at the captain.

"Of course." Graham looked over to one of the men standing not to far from him, silently asking him to take the wheel.

The man gladly took control of the ship and Graham went off with Hook. They walked down the little staircase and to the other side of the deck, away from everyone else. Hook didn't actually have a plan for what he was going to say, he just started asking questions.

"Pray, tell me Graham, what exactly were you discussing with the princess when I interrupted?"

"Oh, her mother." Graham said.

"Her mother?" Hook repeated, clearly not understanding.

"Yes, I met her mom a very long time ago, before the princess was even born actually." Graham explained.

"So you're friends with her mother?"

"Not exactly." He would have gone on into explaining the story, but Hook cut him of with yet another question.

"But you are friends with the princess?"

"Possibly." Graham answered honestly, they weren't necessarily friends at the time, but maybe in the future.

"And you have feelings for the princess?" Hook instantly regretted asking this, why did he even care? But Graham didn't seem to mind the question, he just shrugged it off and answered.

"Not at all."

"Good." Why Hook had chosen to say that, he wasn't quite sure himself. It didn't matter if the huntsman he had picked up had feelings for the princess who snuck on... did it? No, of course not... But if he really didn't care, then why had he locked her in his room?

"Something wrong captain?" Graham asked, bringing Hook back to reality and making him realize he had been spacing out.

"Hmm? No, not at all. Let's get back to work, shall we?"


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N- super sorry for not posting on Saturday. This is chapter of kind of long, hope you guys don't mind. As always please review, favorite and/or follow. Thanks for all of you who have favorited so far. **

**Disclaimer- well, I still don't own Ouat or the characters. **

Chapter 7

Emma stood there, pounding at the door, begging to be released for about an hour. Her arms were beginning to feel weak and her throat was starting to hurt from yelling. Emma realized that Hook was probably somewhere else, but still she hoped someone would walk by and hear her and let her out, but no one did. Finally Emma gave up on trying to be let out, Hook would come back eventually.

She turned around and looked at the room, scanning it for anything remotely useful. There was a fairly large bed, two trunks full of clothes, a lot of maps, another door, a window and a desk. 'Wait, another door!' She had completely passed over it, 'how did I not see that?' Emma walked over to the door, which was on the left side of the room. First she put the side of her head against it so she could hear if there was anybody on the other side, but she heard nothing. She stepped back and opened it carefully, peering in just a little, in case there actually was someone there. 'Oh, it's a washroom.' She thought before opening the door completely, revealing a small room with a mirror, tub and a toilet.

This washroom was similar to the public one that was just next to the staircase going below deck, but it was much cleaner and had a tub. That was where Emma's main focus had been, on the tub, which was filled with water. She hadn't taken a bath in days, no doubt she was starting to smell pretty bad. 'I don't care how mad he gets, I'm taking a bath.' She decided. She walked out of the little room and opened up one of his clothing trunks, she grabbed a very long black shirt, a belt and a towel then went back to the washroom.

She undressed herself then carefully slipped into the tub. The water was warm and clean, well it was clean until Emma got in, then it became rather cloudy and grey-ish brown. She grabbed the bar of soap and began to clean herself then she reached over and grabbed her clothes and decided to clean them as well. After the bath she dried off and put on Hooks large black shirt, (which was more like a dress on her) and tightened the waist with the belt. She slowly pushed the door of the washroom half open, just in case he had returned during her bath, but much to her relief she was still alone.

She walked into the cabin completely and sat down on the bed, and then she realized just how truly tired she was. 'I guess a little nap couldn't hurt,' She thought 'I'll just wake up in a few minutes, it's not like he'll be coming back anytime soon.' So Emma laid down and curled up under the covers, which smelt distinctly of rum. Well, captain Hook did tend to drink a lot. It didn't take Emma long to fall asleep though, despite the overwhelming smell.

...

"Couldn't you have chosen a different shirt, oh, never mind I'll just wear this one" she could hear a faint whisper saying. Her eyes remained shut and she didn't budge as she felt the covers being pulled off of her just a little.

"Pardon me, ssh... ssh... keep sleeping."

She heard the whisper again, she couldn't tell who it was and frankly she didn't care. It didn't matter to her, all she wanted to do was sleep. She felt someone's hand somewhat on her waist, it was moving something around and then very quickly and carefully they pulled the belt off of her. She moved a little in annoyance and grunted, but remained half asleep.

"Sorry." The person whispered.

Finally she decided to open her eyes and take a peek at who had been bothering her. She sat up, stretched a little and rubbed her eyes then looked at the person, squinting a little from the sudden light. It took her a second for her eyes to adjust and then another second to fully comprehend who she was looking at. Hook! She had completely forgotten about how she had fallen asleep in his cabin. 'Shit! Crap!' She yelled at herself along with plenty of other curses. 'What were you thinking, he's probably really mad. Damn, what time is it?... it's morning already, you were supposed to take a nap, not sleep for hours. Come on Emma!'

"Good morning. I didn't mean to wake you, just needed to borrow my stolen belt." Hook said only slightly sarcastic. Was he not bad at her? It didn't sound like it.

"Sorry, I just... needed some clothes to wear while mine finished drying off." She said, still worried he was angry.

"It's quite alright, however I did mind the little sleeping arrangement you decided on. I do hope you enjoyed the bed because let me tell you, bunks are not very comfortable."

"I'm sure it's better than being tied to a mast." She didn't mean this as a joke, in fact she was quite bitter when she said it, but still Hook laughed. 'Maybe he's messing with me' She thought still confused by his sudden happy mood.

"Well, if you want breakfast you ought to get moving, it might all be gone if you lay around to long." He told her.

"Aren't you mad me?"

"For sleeping in my bed? No. I figured you would do something of the sort, I did lock you in here with nothing better to do." With that he sauntered out of the room, leaving Emma alone and altogether very confused.

...

Emma got to the kitchen in good time and was able to get a good full breakfast. She had eggs and bacon, probably the best meal she had eaten in a long time. After finishing her food she went back to Hooks cabin to get her clothes which should have been dry by then. She changed her clothes and was about to leave when one of the maps caught her eye. It was a map of a place she had never seen before, which was surprising because she had been nearly everywhere in the Enchanted Forest and knew the entire map by heart. This place however was strange and different, and she was unable to read the writing on the map.

"Where is that?" She said out loud, before picking up another.

This one was of a different place, but still not the Enchanted Forest. It had red circles all over it and some x's too. She figured Hook had put these there to mark places that were important. She tried to understand what all of it meant by even the little compass in the corner was confusing.

"Where are you taking us?" Emma asked even though Hook wasn't there to answer.

...

"Graham!"

"Emma, hey. What's going on?" He asked, walking away from whatever work he was doing.

"I need to talk to you... alone." She said looking around at all of the men standing there. None of them were looking at her or worried about what they were saying, but still Emma wanted to be sure no one was listening.

"Okay." Graham said, eager to get away from the hard work he had been doing. Once they were by themselves Emma began to talk.

"This boat, it's going to the Dark Kingdom, right?"

"I believe so."

"And the mission, it's to take the evil queen and bring her back to King Da- I mean, my father, right?"

"Yes."

"Then why does the captain have so many maps of places that aren't in the Enchanted Forest?"

"How should I know? Maybe he just had them from past trips." Graham said innocently, "wait how do you know what his maps look like?"

Emma thought about explaining but decided it was to much trouble, besides she had her own explanations to get. Emma sighed, "You're no help. I'll just ask him my self."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" He asked. Hook tended to have a temper, so confronting him about maps she wasn't supposed to see in the first place might not have been the best idea.

"I honestly don't care." She said before walking off to find the captain.

...

She found him just where she thought he would be, down in the little bar area of the ship, having a few drinks with his 'mates'. Emma stood in the doorway for a few seconds, trying to decide whether to go in or not. This decision mostly depended on how drunk Hook was. Since she didn't really know how alcohol changed his behavior, Emma came to the conclusion that it might not be best to have an important conversation with him in a drunk state. But by the looks of it he was completely in control of himself and seemed to have the drinking under control, so Emma walked in.

Okay more like stormed in, because her pace was rather fast and she wasn't at all quiet. Many of the men turned to see who it was, and many of them seemed unhappy about who they saw. Especially a certain Richard who apparently was very good at holding a grudge because he was the one person who never ceased to glare at her. Emma ignored this dirty looks, however, and simply made her way over to the captain, who didn't seem to notice her.

"Hook, I need to talk to you." She said sternly, placing her hands on her hips.

Hook looked up from the cards he held in his hand and his expression was less than happy. He looked around at the men playing cards with him then back at Emma. Clearly he was upset with her but tried not to show it, probably to avoid making a scene in front of everyone.

"Later." He said, the word was polite but his voice seemed to say 'go away right now'. But Emma didn't take the hint, not that she didn't see it.

"No, Hook, now!" Emma said, looking down at him from across the table.

Hook was probably an amazing poker player because he was very good at not changing his facial expressions, when he wanted to be. But Emma was also very good at seeing pass people exteriors, at least she liked to think she was. So even though his expression didn't change she could tell by the look in his eyes that he had just gone from being annoyed straight to being angry. Then he placed his cards on the table face up, not even bothering to turn them over so that the other men wouldn't cheat. They were all too focused on the current situation to worry about their card game anyway. Next Hook stood up, and as he did Richard also stood but sat down as soon as Hook glared at him. Hook walked over to Emma slowly, she cursed herself silently for not taking this time to run. He grabbed hold of her forearm and pulled her closer, so close in fact that she had to tilt her head back in order to look him in the eye. She hated that she was shorter than him.

"I thought I told you princess, you are to address me as captain in front of my men." He whispered venomously in her ear.

"Well then _captain_, I need to talk to you now!" She snapped back. And boy did she regret doing that, that was the last straw for Hook. A straw that she should not have messed with.

He tightened his grip on her arm, which by the way left bruises that lasted at least half a week. Then he pulled her pass the men, to the door, through the halls, up the stairs and then finally to his cabin. It was hard for her to keep up with him, as she still hasn't gotten her sea legs. So she did trip a couple of times, and Hook didn't bother to wait for her to get up when she did, he just continued to drag her along. But once they got to his room he let go of her.

"What the bloody hell is your problem?!"

"These..." She said walking over and grabbing the maps, waving them in the air for him to see, "these maps are my problem."

"And what business have you with my maps?"

"Where are you taking me Hook? Because I got on this boat under the impression that it was headed to the Dark Kingdom."

"It is." He stated.

"Then why the hell do you have this? Cause it sure isn't the Dark Kingdom." She yelled shaking one of the maps again.

"I have _this_..." Hook said snatching the map from her hand "because we have to make a few stops along the way."

"Outside of the Enchanted Forest? That's not what I signed up for!"

"To be fair you didn't sign up at all princess, and if you have such a big problem with it then feel free to leave this ship whenever you want." He said viciously. They were both silent for a while.

"I want to help you capture Regina." Emma blurted out, catching Hook by surprise.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Absolutely not"

"Why?"

"Because I need to return you to your parents in one piece." He explained, talking to her like she was a dumb, naive child.

"I already told you. I. Don't. Want. To. Be. Returned."

"And I already told you. I. Don't. Care." He said before walking away, leaving Emma there, more upset than before. Because now not only were her questions unanswered, but Hook was apparently still planning on getting her back to her parents.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Thanks to everyone for being so patient. I've been having trouble writing some of the later chapters and that's been really time consuming. Hope you all like this chapter. Don't forget to review, follow and favorite.**

**Disclaimer- as far as I know ouat still belongs to Adam and Eddy.**

Chapter 8

It had been days since Hook and Emma's little argument and the two hadn't talked to each other since. Hook had Graham give Emma all of her orders, and Emma returned the silent treatment by avoiding him altogether. Graham was getting a little annoyed by their childish attitudes, and he didn't like having to listen to both of them rant about how terrible the other was. So today he had a plan, he was going to get those two to talk, really talk, and work out whatever problems they had.

Graham made his way across the deck to where Emma had just sat down after doing some meaningless work. Hook had made a habit of giving her the stupidest, yet still hardest jobs he could find. It was almost like a punishment for upsetting him. But of course just having the jobs be hard wasn't enough, no, he made sure Emma had to do all of it without any help from the crew. When Emma saw Graham coming her way her relief of finishing a job instantly went down, if Graham was coming over it could only mean one thing. She had another job to do.

"Emma, the captain wants you to clean the extra cabins." Graham said, he was taking quite the risk too. Emma had told him about her super power, so it was very possible that she would know he was lying. But lucky for him she was too upset about the mention of Hook to catch his untruthfulness.

"Of course he does. Right when I finish one thing he tells me to do something else. Like he couldn't have anyone else do it." She huffed before walking off. As she walked away she muttered, what Graham could only assume where curses, under her breath.

As soon as he saw her go below deck Graham went to Hook. He was at the helm of the ship steering, which was his favorite place to be. Graham walked up slowly, still not completely sure what he was going to say. Hook didn't like to be bothered by small things, so it would have to at least sound important.

"Captain... I need to see you, if you can spare a moment." He called. Okay, so it wasn't much, and it didn't sound important, but it was all Graham could come up with.

"Ay, I'll be there in just a second." Hook said then turned to one of the men asking him to take the wheel. It appeared that Hook was in a good mood today, considering that he didn't ask Graham what exactly he needed to talk about.

"Seems we'll be hitting land soon, then we can get rid of some extra weight, maybe then we'll go a little faster." Hook told Graham as he walked over to him. You see many of the men on the ship weren't actually part of his crew, they just paid to take the trip. Hook was never really a people person, so it was no surprise to Graham that he would be excited about getting some of those men off his ship.

"That's wonderful captain. Anyway, there's something I need to show you below deck, it has to do with... the cabins. I think there's some wood that needs replacing and then... Well you'll just have to see for yourself. But I figured now would be a good time because we could pick up some supplies once we dock." Graham said as they headed below deck.

He continued to ramble on about nothing in particular for a few more minutes until they reached their destination. Graham, being a former hunter, had very good ears and was able to tell which room Emma was in without even looking. So he took the captain right over to the door and swung it open. Inside Emma was doing a half job of cleaning the room but stopped when the door opened. At first she looked surprised by the door being opened, but once she saw Hook you could see the anger growing behind her green eyes.

"Now I know you're both very upset with each other, and I'm sure you'll both be upset with me but you two really need to talk. You can't just ignore each other for the rest of this journey." Graham said in a rush. Emma and Hook were silent for a moment, neither of them dared to look at the other.

"Fine." Emma and Hook said this at the same time then sent each other menacing glares.

"Wonderful, now... work it out." Graham started walking to the door then turned around, "I'll be waiting outside, and neither of you are leaving until you're done fighting." He closed the door.

...

For the first few minutes they didn't talk or even look at each other. Emma sat on the bottom bunk in the corner of the room with her arms crossed as she started at the wall. Meanwhile Hook walked around aimlessly, acting like he was deeply concentrated an his hook. The tension in the room was unbearable but neither of them wanted to be the one to break the silence. Or rather, neither of them wanted to be the one to apologize.

"I suppose we should be... talking." Emma finally said, not bothering to look at Hook. He jumped a little, startled to hear her speak to him.

"Hmm? Well, yes, I suppose that would be the reason he put us in here together." Hook said in a rather sarcastic tone, then looked expectantly at Emma who didn't seem to understand what he was waiting for. "Well... aren't you going to apologize, love?"

"Me! I have nothing to apologize for! You're the one-" she started screaming at him, and he gladly returned the favor. Soon the two were yelling over one another at the top of their lungs, saying all sorts of curses. Emma leaned forward to slap him but Hook quickly caught her hand before it could hit his face. They continued to yell, but their fighting ended fast when Graham came in quickly to pull them apart.

"Stop! Stop it! You two are like children! Can't you just talk for a minute?" He asked once they quieted down. Emma nodded, and Hook reluctantly did the same. "Good, but I'm not leaving the room this time."

"Sorry, for yelling." Emma mumbled, just barely loud enough for the others to hear.

"Apology excepted." Hook said with a smug smile but Graham sent him a look that seemed to say 'don't be rood'. Hook rolled his eyes, then revised his statement. "I mean, I'm sorry too... for yelling."

After a moment of silence and a little glare from Graham, Emma figured that she should probably say something else, "I'm sorry for not calling you captain, when you asked me to."

"I'm sorry that I didn't control my temper," Hook said sincerely,then felt the need to continue "but I was a bit drunk."

"You weren't that drunk." Emma said letting a little smile show.

"I know, it just seemed like a good excuse." He said with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry I snooped around in your room."

"I'm sorry I locked you in my room." There was a moment of silence as the two realized they didn't have anything else to say.

"Can we be done apologizing now?" Emma asked Graham.

Graham looked between the two of them, "shake hands."

"Seriously?" Hook asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, shake hands and promise that you're done fighting."

Emma sighed, "you're treating us like children."

"You two are acting like children, now just shake on it."

"Fine." They said simultaneously before sticking out their hands.

"Good," Graham said, pleased by their cooperation. "Now, let's get back to work."

Graham and Hook began walking out of the room, leaving Emma to continue cleaning. They were half way out the door when something dawned on Emma.

"Wait," she called after them. They turned around, eyebrows raised in question, "did Hook really give me orders to clean all these rooms, or was that just a way for you to get us in the same room?"

Hook was the one to answer, "I didn't give you any orders, however, you're doing a wonderful job cleaning. So finish up with the rest of the rooms, would you?"

Emma looked at him, reading his expression. 'Damn it.' He wasn't joking. She let out a long sigh before nodding her head and going back to work.

...

"Land ho!" The cry was heard all over the deck, in less than a minute the news had spread to everyone in the crew. Soon all of the men and Emma were standing on the deck, everyone dropped what they were doing to find out what the captain would say. Surprisingly Hook was the last one on deck and he walked rather slowly over to the helm. Once he stood there in front of everyone the crew began to quiet down.

"We'll be docking at that port in less than an hour. Everyone who told me they would be leaving the crew will get off and will not return, that should be about half of you. Everyone else will help anchor the ship, and finish up any work. After that's done, my select group will come with me, another will stay on the ship and the third will be free to do what they please. Now back to work." Hook tended to make his speeches as short and sweet as possible. He didn't like to spend large amounts of time explaining things, especially when he could be doing much more pressing and important things.

Hook stood at the helm for a moment, watching as everyone went back to whatever they were doing before. His eyes scrolled over the entire deck, but he stopped when he caught sight of the blonde hair. He cursed quietly as he watched her move across the deck. Why hadn't he been thinking about this earlier? No doubt she still wanted to come with him on this little adventure, but he was going to stand by his decision. But how would he be sure she stayed on the boat? He'd have to leave her with someone, but who? The two men he trusted most were coming with him and he didn't know who else would do.

"Smee! Graham! Come here!" He ordered. The two came rushing over, Smee was a little slower though. They both stood attentively, waiting for him to give some orders, but instead he motioned them a bit closer.

"Who, besides myself and the two of you, do you trust most on this ship?" He asked quietly, so that no one around them would hear.

"That depen's a great deal on what we're trustin' 'em with cap'ain." Smee said after thinking about it for a while, "I'd trust Billy with me money, I'd trust Steve with me food, I'd trust-"

"I mean with the princess," Hook interrupted, clearly not interested in what Smee was saying, "who would you boys trust with the princess."

"With Emma?!" Graham repeated, a little surprised by the question. "Why would you need to trust her with anyone else?"

"I don't want her coming with us when we dock." Hook explained briefly, not once taking his eyes off Emma, "now, who should I leave her with."

Both Smee and Graham took the question into great consideration. You couldn't trust all pirates, or any type of man for that matter, to be alone with a woman. No doubt some of the men on this ship would take advantage of that situation, and that was the last thing Hook wanted. He wanted Emma to be in safe hands, but he also wanted her with someone who she wouldn't be able to trick or get away from, because he was sure she would try something.

"What about the new boy... John?" Graham piped up after thinking about it for a while. "He's a nice kid, wouldn't dare lay a finger on her."

"John? Yes I agree he'd be safe, but he's not the smartest... or the strongest. Emma could easily trick him, or knock him out." Hook said. And that was his problem, all the men that were strong and smart, were either coming with him or simply not safe.

"Well you could have him tie her to the mast, then she couldn't go anywhere." Graham offered.

"True, but as I said, he's not smart. All she'd have to do is ask him to unite her and he would... Smee, any ideas?" Hook asked finally turning to look at the little man.

"I do think John would be safest" Smee said warily, starting to feel the pressure of Hook asking for his opinion. "Oooo! I know, you could chain her up and keep the key with you... that way he can't let her loose and she can't go anywhere." Smee said with a large grin, very proud of himself for coming up with such a plan. Hook raised his eyebrows, considered it for a moment while Graham furrowed his, looking a bit upset by the whole idea of chaining her up like an animal.

"Wonderful idea." Hook said, it was a great plan and it didn't seem to have any flaws, at least not any flaws that he could think of. "Alright John it is."


End file.
